Flexible, continuous length wrapping material, such as paper, plastic films and metallic foils are sold in rolls (coiled) form. They are dispensed from a disposable carton, which has an integral, and often separable, cutter bar associated with it, to enable cutting the desired length of the sheet transversely. Commonly used dispensers have overtly arrayed cutting edges that can be very sharp to even casual contact.
For home use, when the sheets will be cut in short lengths, the cartons are designed to be held in one hand, while cutting is actuated by the other, which is a fairly safe dispensing arrangement. However, in commercial uses, much bigger rolls of these film products are dispensed. The carton is usually placed in service sitting in a fixed position and the sheet is pulled from the roll to be transversely cut by an overtly protruding cutter bar, positioned at the upper front face of the film dispenser. The unshielded serrated edge of the cutter bar is sharp and can cause injuries to the user who must repeatedly draw film wrap from the dispensing carton. This occurs because the cutter edges protrude only moderately above the carton surface, so they are not readily perceived by an infrequent and/or inattentive user of the dispensing carton. While certain protective elements have been proposed to shield the user from inadvertent injury, they are only partially effective, and are perceived by the user to impede the repeated efficient use of the cutter bar, or add significant cost to disposable carton and cutter bar production.
One proposed shielding means is disclosed in Wilson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,614, directed to a discrete, resilient protective shield for the serrated edge of a cutting bar. It is normally biased in a protective overlapping posture relative to the cutter edge. Although it is adjacent to the cutter edge, it may be easily broken off. This shield also adds a major cost to the cutter bar fabrication.
In another approach to the dispenser carton, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,911, a cutting blade guard is mounted externally of cutter blade, and is vulnerable to tearing off during use, or to just being torn away by a user to whom it appears to be an unnecessary nuisance.
The metallic cutter strip can be applied directly to an edge of the carton blank or to a separate board which is inserted in the erected carton and becomes an integral part thereof. In current staking machine technology, the board or flat carton blank on which a cutter strip is to be mounted, is fed into a staking machine transversely to the feed of the cutter strip, and when the components are in registry, the machine severs an appropriate length of serrated strip, and stakes it along the longitudinal edge of the board. Such operation does not permit application of a guard. If a guard is to be applied, the staked board assembly passes to a hand assembly operation where an overlapping blade guard element is added. The assembly of a guard to the cutter edge is a significant cost additive.